Bueno Tiempos! (Good Times)

The time has practically flown here in Costa Rica. I only have 2 more days of class and then I fly home to Alabama for Christmas. These last few weeks have been steady but fun. I have worked hard in class and have had fun with friends and my Tica Family.

1. Babysitting
2. Black Friday
3. Matty's Fiesta

Babysitting!!
Two Saturdays ago, missionary friends of mine asked me to babysit their 3 children (ages between 6 -10) so that they could go out on a date. I was SO excited. For three reasons:

1. I love their children. They are well behaved but hilarious to be around.
2. I just enjoy getting out of the house and being around children in general.
3. They promised me Mac n Cheese - How could I say no to that kind of offer??

We ended up having a blast. We ate 4 boxes of Macaroni and Cheese, watched 2 movies, and ate 3 bags of butter popcorn. Then the Friday after Thanksgiving, other missionary friends of mine asked me to babysit their two little guys (ages 2 and 4) while they went Christmas shopping. That was fun as well. Again, I was offered Mac n Cheese for the deal! Forrest, the four year old, knows a good amount of Spanish. So when we played the game, "fix the babysitter something to eat" , Forrest and I played in Spanish while Elliott ( 2 year old) played in English. I have always enjoyed babysitting, but here in Costa Rica I find that I enjoy it even more. I feel like I am helping in a larger way here. Missionaries, ESPECIALLY missionaries with children, just need to relax sometimes, but living in a different country makes that difficult to do. Everything takes longer, its harder to go places, babysitters are harder to find... I am glad that in a small way I am able to help out.

Black Friday in Costa Rica !!?
I was surprised to learn that Costa Rica has Black Friday as well! Actually this is the first year that they have really done it up big. Emy, my Tica mom, asked me to go to the Mall with her on Friday night. Now most of you know, shopping is not really my thing. But I thought it would be fun to get out of the house. Don't get me wrong I had a wonderful time hanging out with Emy, but the Mall was ridiculous. Black Friday was definitely in action. There was people everywhere, I could hardly move with out bumping in to someone. We had a fun time shopping and eating at the food court. (I had really hot buffalo wings from KFC. They were so hot that I could not finish them.)

Matty's Fiesta

The Cake - Elmo Style !!
The Costa Rican word for cake is
 "el queque" (sounds like  "k k")

Matthias (grandson of my Tica mom and dad) turned 3 last week. So on Saturday night, his parents, Karla and Elvin, had a small fiesta for him at their house with Matty's family. Elvin's family was there as well as Karla's family (my tica family) and I was invited as well.

It really embarrassed Matty when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him
In the photo: Karla, Elvin and Matty - and his other granddad

In the photo: Matty, Mom and dad and his uncle Adrian

What Matty doesn't know is that this present is clothes, and as you can see in the picture below- no matter how nice the clothes are- no 3 year old child wants clothes.

Matty is sad because all he thinks he got for his birthday is clothes!

The good surprise was that he did get other toys like this computer
 from Carlos and Emy. That is Emy in the right of the photo.